Uncle Iroh's Meaning of Life & Tea
by Manthor
Summary: All the movers' and shakers' of the Avatar world are older,wiser and are having a reunion.And just in time for Uncle Iroh to once more dispense his sage advice and enlighten them as to the meaning of life! A Oneshot.


_Uncle Iroh's Meaning of Life & Tea_

_A/N:_ A little epilogue to my story the Path of Peace, which is just starting. Funnily enough, you get to know the epilogue of my story before the entire series is completed. Enjoy.

**The purpose of life is to live life with purpose….**

**  
**The group of wanderers gathered around a tea shop, in disguise, patrons in the private room of Western Dragon Tea Restaurant, a reputable establishment patronised by the elite and commoners of Ba Sing Se alike.

Highly established individuals, they were old friends, and if not friends, at the very least, associates'. Slowly, one by one, they took of their disguises and began to talk, exchanging stories, asking about each others' children and families.

In all this, Iroh sat contentedly, side by side with Aunt Wu, his wife of 8 years now and counting. This was one of the few places they could meet in private, indulging in the banality of common chatter with close friends. It was a luxury for the likes of them, given their relative fame in the world, and especially so in Ba Sing Se.

Fire Lord Zuko and the Queen Mother of the Fire Nation, Ambassador Katara, sat side by side holding hands, with the ordinary intimacy and ease of the well-married, long gone was the awkwardness that had dominated their relationship in the beginning. Master Sokka and Lady Suki of Kyoshi Island sat in another corner, Sokka leaning back and whispering into Suki's ear. She giggled slightly. She loved that quality about him, his ability to make her laugh, though his fighting spirit and good looks had intrigued her in the beginning, as adolescents. He could still arouse her with a single look, though that was something she only shared with her closest friends.

The Avatar, Aang, comfortably sat with his consort, Clan Matriarch Toph Bei Fong of the Eastern Air Temple. 4 children later, and she was still as fit and healthy as she had been the day she had started adventuring with Aang, though with more curves in the hips and bust, having filled out over the years, like Katara. Puberty generally tended to do that. To that group was added Duchess Mai of the Shenlong Protectorate, Ty Lee and Zanzieur, her husband and Emissary of the Asssagai Guild. Azula sat to the side, contemplative and silent, no more the fiery Fire Lady she had once been, retired to a life of quiet contemplation and arts, raising the children from her union with the late Jahangir, Warbound Brethren of Zanzieur and Zuko. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in their work and life.

Aunt Wu and Iroh quiet listened to their complaints, as Zuko turned to his uncle, the old Dragon of the West, for advice about how to raise a child, diverging into the new social welfare policies he was enacting, as well as the trouble of being a constitutional monarch governing a commonwealth with all its dominions and realms, his power balanced by the Military Council, the Diet, a parliament representing the people, and the countless provincial governors.

He heard Toph in conference with Ty Lee about the trade arrangements of the temples, while Aang, Zanzieur and Sokka had switched places, regaling each other with old war stories and the bothers of administering and running variously a reborn nation, an emergent power once more finding its place in the world as the Fifth Nation among the four, of Earth, Water, Air and Fire, and of Sokka's tales of fighting pirates in the Southern Islands, many of them fanatics of the Cult of Ozai, fanatical former Fire Nation Navy sailors who had formed a large flotilla and taken refuge in the south. Even now, remnants from the Hundred-Year War of Flames haunted the world.

Offering his guests his trademark tea, the tea master went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of tea and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic , glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to a new tea, Rize Honey Tea, crystal clear and mahogany in colour, with exquisite lumps of beetroot sugar and honey at the side.

When all of them had a cup of teain hand, Iroh cleared his throat loudly. They kept on talking. Aunt Wu began to make a noise as if hocking phlegm and they turned quiet in shock. Iroh gave his wife an appreciative glance and winked at her. At times, even as the refined old lady she was, she was still capable of surprising him.

"If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, in your personal lives, for your families and your people, that is the source of your problems and stress."

Understanding began to dawn on Zuko, as he waited for his uncle to impart a pearl of wisdom. His uncle always pulled stunts like this, especially if it involved Pai Sho or tea. Such had been his youth, as that was how his uncle had taught him. He relaxed and looked on with a grin, wondering what sage advice the old man had to say. Despite all his faults and his frustratingly direct manner, he was an excellent advisor, and as he told his sons and daughters, a _very_ wise man.

"Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the tea. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even _hides_ what we drink. What all of you really wanted was the tea, **not** the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups."

With a start, Mai realised he was right. As mindfulness overcame her, she realised that in the back of her mind, she'd been eyeing Toph's cup and its elaborate display of flowers, the cup that Aang had chosen for his wife.

Iroh continued.

"Now consider this: _Life_ is the tea; the professions, wealth and status in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain _Life_, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life We live. Remember your time as wanderes? Always hunted? You _lived_! It was uncomfortable. They were desperate, hard times, but you _lived!_"

"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we all fail to enjoy the tea that the spirits, the Tao, the Universe, have provided us. The Universe brews the tea, not the cups...Enjoy your tea!"

And with that, Uncle Iroh finished, his sage advice hanging in the air. Sokka proceeded to make a joke about tea as the insight sunk into the rest, and they began to understand what Iroh had just told them.

The happiest people didn't have the best of everything. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko and Iroh had seen that in their travels, especially at the Cave of Two Lovers, in the case of Sokka. They just made the best of everything. Like the Singing Nomads had. Like Ying and Than, when Ying had given birth at the Serpent's Pass and named her daughter _Hope_.

Zanzieur and Azula looked up at the wall, glanced at each other, then back to the wall again. It had always been in plain sight, since they'd gathered in the room. A simple calligraphy scroll in the script of the Fire Nation and Assagai Guild, it was austere and lacked style but was beautiful in its directness and simplicity.

They both recognised it as a scroll that Jahangir had given to Azula, who had in turn had given it to Iroh after his wedding to Aunt Wu, her gifting of it to him a sign of the depth of her remorse and seeking of forgiveness from her family, given that it was one of the few reminders she had of her late lover, her red string soulmate and father of her children.

_Live simply.  
Love generously.  
Care deeply.  
Speak kindly.  
Leave the rest to the Cosmos.  
You are the miracle, my friend,  
Your life either shines a light - or casts a shadow._

_ 'The purpose of life is to live life with purpose' !!!_


End file.
